


so love me tender (always and forever)

by ryanreynolds



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:39:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryanreynolds/pseuds/ryanreynolds
Summary: They meet for the first time in ancient Greece. Since birth they had been drifting towards each other, slowly, agonizingly so; their first meeting everything the Gods could have wished for. Tender and sweet, promising.Or, five times Joe and David meet throughout the history, and one time they live happily ever after.





	so love me tender (always and forever)

**Author's Note:**

> As always, this is based off of the tv-show entirely.
> 
> Enjoy :)

**1.**  
They meet for the first time in ancient Greece. Since birth they had been drifting towards each other, slowly, agonizingly so; their first meeting everything the Gods could have wished for. Tender and sweet, promising.

But it’s a war torn world they have been born in, and they don’t get to keep this sweet thing they have. Their love is not forbidden per say but it is not condoned, not their version of it anyway – ironically, it is only the most dirty form of love that is accepted. This innocent, pure, all-encompassing love is frowned upon and so they are forced to hide it.

They are separated as easily as they were united; a king from this island wants the one, the one with the wits and the easy smile, to come with him to war. The other, the scholar, the wise, is left behind, reaching, stretching so as they will not be separated. It is in vain.

The boy with the black hair never breaks eye contact with his brunet, not until he cannot be seen anymore, as the ship leaves the port. Thoughts full of his scholar, who is so infuriating and so achingly sweet, he prepares for war.

In this time, they go to war separately. They are not meant to be separated, the Gods know this, and so the dice is cast once again. The soldier with dark hair dies a glorious death, and as his comrades surround him, mourn him, he only ever whispers for his love. They mourn the beautiful tragedy that was their love story, and promise him that they will tell his scholar of his bravery. What they don’t know is back home, the scholar with his blue, blue, blue eyes have fallen sick. His last thoughts are of how he will never be able to welcome his soldier home.

They die alone, cold but in love.

It is not the fate the Gods wanted for them, and so They try again.

 

 **2.**  
In Rome, they meet again. Their names are still not important because not this story either plays out like the Gods want it to.

They so carefully had written the words in the book of fates, but even so, the two manage to walk their own paths. This time, they are brothers, and even though their love is strong, it can never be what the Gods want.

The boys are beautiful, clever, brilliantly so, and kind. At least they will be. The Gods can see their future as They look at the boys.

The boys will grow up, they will be the best of friends, closer than any other brothers. They will go through life together as twins, as friends. They will be brothers, they will promise each other a forever, a life time together.

They will be adored by others for their unconditional love for the other.

They will fight side by side in the wars their emperor will order them to fight in. They will be together on the battlefield this time, when they fall.

The kindhearted brother will fall first. He fought like a lion, he was so brave, but his opponent did not follow the rules of combat. Their honourable boy will fight bravely, nobly, and he will die.

His brother, Their quick-witted and smiling boy, will be forced to watch on in horror as his brother, his best friend, goes down. He will be killed because of the fury and grief that overtakes him. He will break out in a fierce war cry, and he will even scare his fellow soldiers who will thank their gods for not being his enemy. It will take many men, many wounds, before he goes down. But down he eventually goes, and they will once more be reunited in death.

The Gods cannot stand to watch this life.

A volcano erupts and the Roman family don’t make it out of the city of Pompeji.

 

 **3.**  
The next time they will meet, they will be men of power. They will live in a world hateful and judgmental, and they will not fall in love. Not like they did back in Greece. They will drift towards each other as they did the last time, but the tender love and the lingering touches they shared are forbidden in this world, and so they ignore the feelings they harbour for the other. Instead they find a friendship, a friendship so strong that only the lies and treachery of maleficent tricksters will drive them apart.

This time, their names matter. One is Anthony Rivers. The other is Richard of York. Anthony Rivers is wise, strategically intelligent, but he is low born, though of a great family. He is born with hair of sand. Richard of York is born with hair of the raven, he is born with a mischievous glint in his eyes and to a great, powerful family. 

Anthony Rivers has a sister this time, beautiful as the dying sun over the sea. She will meet a tender man – history will say he did not care for anything other than beauty, and that much was true until they met each other. But that is not important – the history of Elizabeth Woodville and her Edward IV is only a stepping stone, a way for the world to entwine the destinies of Anthony Rivers and Richard of York.

They do not live in a gentle world. This world, if possible, is even more harsh than Greece, so their love does not grow like it did in Greece. They are not brothers like they were in Rome, but they cannot be more than friends lest they want to lose their heads. Lest their want to bring shame down upon their houses.

Their lives are turbulent, no more than a year of peace. The court of the English king is devious, and schemes of the likes of the Kingmaker ruins whatever chance they had of a life in peace.

But they have each other. They support each other. They may not agree on everything but in the end, they have the same goals, hopes, and dreams. Anthony is a knight, Richard is a prince. They marry people that are not each other, and the Gods are angered by this, but what did They expect them to do? Defy the whole world? No human could ever withstand the disgust of a whole country.

It is inhumane to ask them of this, but that must be why They are Gods, and not men.

In this world, they lose a lot. They lose family members. They lose money. They lose a little of themselves in each battle they fight.

They lose each other.

Scheming puts them on opposite sides of war; unwillingly is Anthony placed in the position of a traitor due to Elizabeth Woodville’s scheming, due to her desperate attempts at keeping the throne for her sons so that they all may live.

Richard does not forgive. Has not learned to love Anthony so much that he will trust his Knight more than his wife.

Richard feels something inside of him break as he commands the sword to fall on Anthony’s neck. He pushes it aside, says it’s the part of him that hasn’t yet realized just how much Anthony, his oldest friend, betrayed him.

He never was the same after that day.

He loses his crown and life on the same day to some Lancastrian boy, _Henry_ , but as he takes his last breath he is pretty sure that he hears, feels, sees Anthony welcoming him home.

It’s not a bad thing.

The Gods breathe once more. Yet again did they meet, yet again did they die alone. It cannot go on like this. It must not. These two were meant to be together, why must the Fate work against Their will? They cannot understand.

Next time. Next time will be perfect.

 

 **4.**  
The next time isn’t perfect.

They’re born in America this time around, this country born of English colonies.

It’s right, the Gods realize, them being American. Here is where they will live, die, and be reborn until they finally get their happily ever after. It is decided. All the Gods agree on this subject.

But other than that, this lifetime is hell.

They are in the same country, but they never meet. Not until the very last. One, their smirking raven, is born in the Northern states. The other, their philosophical and gentle boy, is born in the Southern states.

They weep for their wise one. He is born amidst fools, hateful and blind fools. He is so much better than the people he grows up amongst.

As a war, a civil war, a terrible war that turns brother on brother, friend on friend, is brewing, They pray that he will make it to the Northern border before the war breaks out. If he can make it there, he can be on the side he wants to fight for, he can fight alongside their ravenhaired boy.

The war breaks out. 

Their Southerner is still in the South, enlists as his brother does.

Their Northerner is still in the North, enlists as his father does.

They fight once more in a war, and they are once more shaken to the core by the horror of it all. They are broken.

Their Southerner holds his childhood friend as he breaths his last breath. Their boy breaks down crying, cursing this war, cursing the states for not giving up on slavery. It’s wrong, it’s always been wrong, and now he is fighting a war to defend it. He has never felt more dirty in his whole life.

Their Northerner kills the Southerner.

The Gods turn away, close their eyes. Once more, their raven-haired boy is turned into a villain. Into a killer. Into the murderer of his own soulmate, the one molded just for him. 

They cannot stand to look at him to know that he feels the loss of his soulmate in the very core of his soul.

They hear his screams and that is gut-wrenching enough.

 

 **5.**  
They are born in a war-torn world this time. They are born to fight in a glorious war, the war to end all wars.

The Gods are divine but after having watched them turn on one another back in England; worse, having watched them on opposite sides of a civil war in America of the old – They are not sure They can stand another failed lifetime. 

They just pray that one will not kill the other.

So They watch; They watch their dark haired be born as a Jew, grow up to have his characteristic smirk and his mischievous eyes. His name is Joseph. He likes to be called Joe. His fellow soldiers call him Liebgott. David calls him Lieb.

They watch their kind one be born as a rich, little boy, so full of wonder and wanderlust. His name is David Kenyon Webster. His mother calls him Kenyon. His fellow soldiers call him Webster. Joe calls him Web. David hates the nickname yet cannot deny Joe the right to call him that; he likes the way it sounds on Joe’s lips.

They meet in Toccoa; it’s a brief encounter. Full of heated words, heated glances; butterflies like neither have ever felt before. They are a storm, and the Gods feel, for the first time since Greece, that maybe there is hope yet for their happy ending. For their eternal reunion. 

If it takes a war for them to meet, for them to love each other, the Gods decide that it will be worth it. They know Their two children will suffer many losses, will suffer many wounds, but hopefully they will have each other for cmfort.

The Gods watch as they fall in love once more. Not like they did back in Greece, not like they did back in England; it’s a possessive kind of love that they have to hide.

They never tell each other of the way butterflies flutter in their stomachs. They form a friendship, quietly and in the shadows. In the light they fight, in the dark they whisper promises. They don’t know where this closeness comes from, but it feels like they’ve known each other for all eternity; like they’ve gone through the ages together. It scares them. It comforts them. 

The Gods try to shield them from as much as possible. Their kind boy still gets hit, gets separated from their mischievous one. But they find a way back to each other, physically and mentally. Germany carries them to Austria, and here’s where the sweet tune breaks.

In this world, they are both so full of anger and hate to the Germans, but where their kind Harvard boy just wants it all to stop, their clever Jew boy wants them all to suffer for their actions.

They don’t find a way back to each other, and once again the Gods are forced to wait until the souls once again come back to them. It’s a cruel waiting. They both marry, and it’s so wrong because the war has broken these two so that they can only be completed by each other. They both have children and the Gods are somewhat pleased at seeing them slowly healing as happy, childish giggles fill the air.

Their kind boy dies way too soon, out on the big, blue and beautiful ocean. They see him struggle but also They feel his weariness. In another world, he would’ve fought the ocean; in this world, he lets it take him home.

Their clever boy lives a withdrawn life. He never lets himself dwell on the past; he knows that if he does, if he turns back, he will be lost, in the memories and in the sorrow. He feels something break beyond repair one day as he reads the newspaper, a little notice; ‘WWII veteran and shark expert, David Kenyon Webster (39), lost at sea. Presumed dead.’ His wife holds him through the night.

 

 **(1)**  
They are born once again in 2016. It’s a year of liberation, of celebration; another step towards equality.

In this year, their love is proclaimed legal, right, _good_. Finally do they have a chance at loving each other wholeheartedly, a shot at their happy ending.

They are born once again as Joe Liebgott and David Webster; they are born once again as a Jew from San Francisco, and a scholar from New York. They grow up like they always should have; happy and safe. The Gods let out a breath of relief. Now is the time.

They meet at a frat party; Joe crashed the party, David was forced to the party. 

Their relationship mostly consists of shouting in the beginning, and the Gods facepalm; so close. Of course, after all the problems like war and homophobia is out of the war, the only obstacle left is for them to get their shit together.

Eventually they do, and the Gods let the sun shine for two months straight. They let flowers bloom more beautiful than ever. It’s time of spring, and Their two souls are finally in love. Where their fighting was all fire, passion; their love is all air, gentle, light touches, chaste kisses but forceful, strong.

To the Gods delight the two have found their friends from WWII again; some other Gods must keep their eyes on, They decide. Mayhaps the Easy Company soldiers have been together all throughout history. The Gods like the sound of that. That even though Their two souls’ love was their focus, Fate’s focus has always been to reunite Easy Company in every era.

Here in the modern times, in the good year of 2037, they have found love, they have found friendship, and most importantly, they are all together, and they are all safe.

They hope that Joe and David will grow old together, that never will they be forced to live one day without the other; but right now, everything is perfect, and the Gods are tired. They have seen so much suffering, have felt Their children’s pain. Right now They can sleep and leave Their children to be happy on their own.

They have earned that.


End file.
